Stella (Jan 10th, 2010 at 6:02 pm)
I like the swirly effect rising from his body. I'm guessing that his soul. My first thought when I saw that was that it reminded me of Dragonheart, but his body is still there.
R.I.P. Poor Unnamed Desert Dragon

CyMoahk (Jan 10th, 2010 at 7:13 pm)
I second the coolness of the swirly-soul-leaving effect. So, looking at panels 2&4, is Keesa the only one who saw that?
We can already see what's "under the wing" a bit. That looks NASTY. O_O
Also kinda creepy having his eye semi-open like that in the last panel. Good effect.

Seanan (Jan 10th, 2010 at 8:04 pm)
Oooooh, man, that wound does look pretty bad. :(

Nemoricus (Jan 11th, 2010 at 7:27 am)
Alas, we hardly knew ye.
Well, trying to mess with the rift magically has proven to be a very bad idea. So, where does this leave our heroes in terms of options?

Slamlander (Jan 11th, 2010 at 12:06 pm)
I have had good luck, on Wordpress based sites, using WP-SpamFree.
The plugin site is at http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/plugins/wp-spamfree
Yes, I am assuming that this is Wordpress with the Comicpress theme.
I like the story thus far.

Nightlyre (Jan 11th, 2010 at 2:36 pm)
Keesa can indeed see certain things that the others cannot; comes with the whole 'not entirely natural' territory.
@Slamlander Thank you - actually though, this site isn't Wordpress/Comicpress. It is hand coded because a. I like a challenge, and b. I'm a glutton for punishment. :) Our new method seems to be working very well so far; we're still capturing "failed" comments to make sure we're not losing legitimate posters, and so far all of those have been spambots. They just can't quite figure out what to put in that field...

Tmowlee (Jan 11th, 2010 at 7:55 pm)
Well I think that we can chalk this up to a learning experience. When the riftwalking dragon tells you not to magically seal a rift in rock then you listen to her. She knows what she's talking about.

Arkturium (Jan 11th, 2010 at 8:49 pm)
This is brilliant, I've been looking for a webcomic with dragons in it but hadn't found one until I stumbled upon this. It's fantastic, you have done a really good job and I really like the desert dragon, Riavele. He is cool.

WhisperPntr (Jan 11th, 2010 at 10:46 pm)
I think this is an amazing comic so far! :D Can't wait to see more and also and on the aside, if you are ever hurting for traffic submitting this to creaturecomics on dA would assure tons of hits. Not sure if you are going for a specific target audience, but animal and especially dragon comics are very very rare.

Starstilanx (Jan 12th, 2010 at 1:51 am)
Awww, I do feel really bad for the dragon! Wonderful how the comic is progressing though, it truly has a very interesting dark feel to it in these later ones.

Slamlander (Jan 12th, 2010 at 2:32 am)
Okay. In that case you might want to go to that link as the author publishes the algorythm that he used. Simple, elegant, and effective. There is nothing preventing you from following suit.
PS. I *hate* killing off characters in my novels (No, I am a novelist, not an graphic artist). ;)

theshadowdweller (Jan 12th, 2010 at 8:45 am)
Minor setback....they have another rift dragon in cold storage so i think they should have Keesha try something else on the rift, like dropping a big rock on it.

theshadowdweller (Jan 12th, 2010 at 8:46 am)
.....*grumble....it figures that i would be the first to screw up the fail-safe.

Nightlyre (Jan 12th, 2010 at 9:20 am)
Hmm... it is something we'll continue to look into, then. Thank you for the link, Slamlander - the ideas behind it are definitely something I can play around with. I didn't realize that using cookies/Javascript would effectively cripple a spambot, but it does make sense.
@theshadowdweller - I'm sorry it caught you. I've 'undeleted' your message. Still, in the time that took, it actually caught 72 spam messages... so at least it is doing some good for the moment. :)
And another hello to all of the new people! WhisperPntr, I recognize you from Tomgeeks. Welcome, I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)

theshadowdweller (Jan 12th, 2010 at 1:45 pm)
Your filter not only deletes spam-bots, it also blocks shady characters........it doesn't like me

EveryZig (Jan 12th, 2010 at 1:46 pm)
I would suggest before dropping a rock on it shooting at it with a catapult, and see if the catapult gets fried. Another thing between you and the thing that shoots purple lightning is a good thing.

theshadowdweller (Jan 14th, 2010 at 7:04 am)
Thats it! Everyzig has it! They need to get some villagers to hold in front of them when they run tests. Problem solved

nano2ba (Jan 15th, 2010 at 10:47 am)
They could ask the trees to shed some leaves to cover the rift. Trees shed leaves naturally during the Fall, and this is a magical world so they could probably pull it off anytime they wish, and pretty fast too, if anyone asked them to.

You know, shift the danger to a third party. Though the forest might get all ... exploded ... when the Rift backlashes.

Elderon Analas (May 23rd, 2010 at 9:11 am)
*INTENSE GALES OF CRYING* WHY!! WHY!! WHY DOES NO ONE LISTEN TO KEESA!? SHE SAID IT WAS A BAD IDEA TO MESS WITH IT! Then they just go and mess with it and now a fellow dragon is dead! *MORE CRYING* Now if you excuse me I must say a prayer for my dragon brother. *bows head in prayer a tears fall*
"Nomag wer darastrix di seoyli kagn wux ekess wer guawysverni svaklar wux geou waph persvek martivir. Origato wer mitne soves wux lae wux gethrisj. Douta waph jahus precarious vur wux geou agantal qe mrith udoka persvek hesi shishini, vur preahi."